Aluka
Aluka is an international, collaborative initiative building an online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa. The name ‘Aluka’ is derived from a Zulu word meaning ‘to weave’, reflecting Aluka’s mission to connect resources and scholars from around the world.  Sponsored by ITHAKA, Aluka seeks to attract high-quality scholarly content, from all academic disciplines, about Africa from institutions and individuals across the globe. By contributing their collections to the Aluka platform, content owners will have a means of offering access to their collections to an international audience — without having to develop and support their own technology platforms. Aluka’s web-based platform provides powerful tools for research, teaching, collaboration, and knowledge exchange.

The Aluka website includes a wide variety of high-quality scholarly materials contributed by Aluka’s partners, ranging from archival documents, periodicals, books, reports, manuscripts, and reference works, to three-dimensional models, maps, oral histories, plant specimens, photographs, and slides. By aggregating these materials online, the Aluka collections link materials that are widely dispersed and difficult to access, opening up new opportunities for research, teaching, and broader public discussion.  Aluka is focusing its initial collecting efforts on three areas:  African Cultural Sites and Landscapes, African Plants, and Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa.

 ASERL members receive a 5% discount on the annual Aluka fee. 

ALUKA PARTICIPATION FEES
ALUKA bases its fees to participating libraries on how much each library spends on library materials annually. Their current fee schedule (not including the ASERL member discounts) is below:

 

LME Range

Network Participation Fee

 

 

 

2007

2008

2009

2010

 

 

Fee Waived

40% of fee

70% of fee

100% of fee

If Library Materials Expenditure is

$ >30M

$0

$4000

$7000

$10 000

If Library Materials Expenditure is

$ 20M - 30M

$0

$3400

$5950

$8500

If Library Materials Expenditure is

$ 15M - 20M

$0

$2800

$4900

$7000

If Library Materials Expenditure is

$ 13M - 15M

$0

$2600

$4550

$6500

If Library Materials Expenditure is

$ 11M - 13M

$0

$2400

$4200

$6000

If Library Materials Expenditure is

$ 9M - 11M

$0

$2200

$3850

$5500

If Library Materials Expenditure is

$ 7M - 9M

$0

$2000

$3500

$5000

 

More Information About Aluka
Additional information about Aluka can be found at www.aluka.org.
 ASERL Members interested in receiving discounts with Aluka should contact Javanica Curry, Associate Director of Library Relations, at participation@aluka.org